Hangul Title: 인연 만들기
English: Creating Destiny
Romanized: Inyeon Mandeulgi
Synopsis: Han Kyung Tae moved to Australia with his two young daughters, forcing them to grow up away from friends and family in Korea. Now of marrying age, his oldest daughter, Sang Eun has brought home an American boyfriend, and Kyung Tae is anything but pleased. Believing his daughter has forgotten her Korean roots, he schemes with his lifelong friend to get their children to marry. Together they conspire to tell their children that they are betrothed to each other from childhood. Sang Eun is promised that if she lives for one year in Korea to get to know her betrothed, Yeo Joon, she can come back to Australia and marry whoever she likes.
My Rating: G – It’s probably too slow paced for kids anyway, but I honestly can’t recall anything questionable in this drama at all. Squeaky clean!
Inferior American Counterpart: (I use the term ‘inferior’ lightly in this instance 
) Swan Princess
Classic parents-say-marry, kids-say-no-at-first scenario.
Characters: ♦♦♦♦♦
Huge cast of well-rounded characters. Everyone has a story, and the 31 episodes make sure we get the full back story for each character. Ultimately, it’s a drama about family, and we have lots of it. Yeo Joon’s sister, mother and father, grandmother, even his colleague… all have a role. As do Sang Eun’s sister, father, grandfather, and eventually her mother. By the end, we have about four couple arcs to follow rather than one. You need a Venn diagram to connect them all.
The most amazing thing is how differently I felt about certain characters at the drama progressed. I was not very fond of Sang Eun at the start; she was kind of a brat. Okay, she was a lot a brat. But as time went on, she became quite lovable–a necessary achievement since she’s one of the leads in a thirty-one hour drama.
Hae Sung, the father of Yoon Hee’s little girl, was despicable through a large portion of it, and I couldn’t fathom ever forgiving his arrogance. However, he completely changed and I ended up loving him almost as much as I hated Yeo Joon’s mother. Ugh. Dreadful woman.
Hilarity Per Episode: ♦♦♦
This one has a lot more Korean culture and dialogue so it starts slow. Very, very slow. The main couple don’t even start dating until Episode 10 (not even real dating, just fool-the-parents-dating) and the end of 9 is the first inkling of mutual camaraderie where they high five and share some giggles. In Episode 17 there happens THE most adorable hand-holding moment, and in 18 we’re treated to a situation where too much drinking turns into a time for great squee. That’s nearly twenty hours before real romantic progress is made and I was given reason to smile. Oh, the build up.
That’s not to say it has no chuckle-value along the way. The dialogue itself is really funny. Yeo Joon and Sang Eun bicker wonderfully, and Yeo Joon is consistently taken aback by Sang Eun’s casual attitude. The face he makes is priceless.
Typical Creating Destiny episode ender, brought to you by Yeo Joon’s Face.
Tear-Drama: ♦♦
There’s far more angst than there are tear jerkers, but there’s a part in Episode 21 where Jin Joo gives her dad an invitation to her Kindergarten party, and the way his face lights up… surprise and joy and…*weeps* There are some delightful moments in there. I may not have used up packs of tissues, but my heart was moved.
Soundtrack: ♦♦
I can’t recall much diversity in the music. There is the main song “I Didn’t Know I Would Fall in Love” which is absolutely perfect. Other than that, nothing comes to mind. Plenty of Christmas songs play in the background while characters sip on coffee (“cappuccino!”) or eat their noodles, but the title song is the only one that found its way into my special collection.
Sleep Deprivation: ♦♦♦♦
For all the dialogue, communication can be terrible in this one. Yeo Joon can be assuming as hell, and Sang Eun throws it back in his face instead of explaining the situation. Later, *coughs*Episode 22*coughs* the roles are reversed when Sang Eun assumes things (though admittedly with more reason to) and Yeo Joon won’t spit out the fact of what’s going on. Ah, pride. How you extend a drama to 31 episodes and keep me awake for hours.
I believe episodes 19-24 I watched all in one sitting. There was no way I was going to torture myself with cliffhangers. I waited long enough for some happiness between our two love-birds to stop in the middle of that. So if you plan on ever watching this, 19-24. Watch them in a row. Or you will hate yourself.
Eye-Candy: ♦♦♦♦
Yeo Joon is what we sophisticated K-drama viewers like to call “yum.” ^_^
*sigh* Why can’t a drunk Korean doctor fall asleep on ME?!
Gyu Han is not hard on the eyes, either.
Ending: ♦♦♦♦♦
Best. Ending. Ever. Wow. Just…. why can’t all dramas end this epically?! Most of the time we’re lucky if the girl finally comes around and agrees to date to the guy by the last 20 minutes of the last episode, regardless of disapproving aunts, mothers, and CEOs. Creating Destiny gives us one happy ending after another… and another… and another, until it has nowhere left to go but the credits. 
It’s ah-mazing. I can’t gush enough about the ending.
Gush.
Gush.
Gush.
Gush.
Here’s something freaking adorable: the two main actors are married now. LIKE IN REAL LIFE MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!
Gush some more. If that’s not the best ending ever… no ifs. It is. It’s the best.
This calls for the GIF PIGGY-BUNNY/TAE-KYUNG SQUEE!!
Best Quotes from CD:
“Your daughter is the type to never let go.”
“Your daughter is the type to be crazy in the head.”
“Are you an idiot? How can a Korean person not understand Korean words? You know that’s not what I mean.”
“That’s how I understood it.”
“Then there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I can’t take responsibility for your stupidity.”
“Do you know what family is? It’s not what you think it is, it’s not what is written on a piece of paper. Even if the same blood does not flow, it’s a person who has the same heart as you. That’s what a real family is.
Do you even know what a parent is? The most important thing for a parent is his child. If a knife is coming towards you, you carry them on your back to run. If a bullet is coming after you, you carry them in front to run.”
“I have learned to save lives all this while, but the next time… it may not be like that.”
“You oddly look like a good person here.”
“‘Oddly??’ I’m taking care of my runaway betrothed in the middle of the night. How can you say, ‘oddly?’”
“Are you okay?”
“Could I be okay when all your weight was on me?”
“What did you say!?”
“You should say things that make sense.”
“After you left, I had to take care of your depressed husband, so I aged a lot.”
“Let’s go, kids. When your dad starts saying ‘honey’ it takes the whole day for him to finish.”
“These people have aged, but haven’t matured.”
“What did you say!?”
“Engagement. The promise of getting married.”
